1. Field
Provided are an anti-EGFR antibody or antigen binding fragment thereof, an anti-c-Met/anti-EGFR bispecific antibody including the same, and a method of preventing and/or treating a cancer using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
c-Met and EGFR (or HER family) interact with each other and are involved in various mechanisms related to tumors. These proteins (targets) are typical receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) present at the surface of cells, thereby inducing the proliferation of cancer cells, the penetration of the cancer cells, angiogenesis, etc. Also, these proteins participate in each other's signal transduction systems by interacting with each other, thereby inducing resistance against each other's therapeutic agents.
Meanwhile, multispecific antibodies targeting two or more antigens have been developed in various kinds and forms and are expected as a new drug antibody having excellent therapeutic effects compared to a monoclonal antibody. Most multispecific antibodies have been developed so that their therapeutic effects on cancers can be increased by recognizing an antigen of cytotoxic cells (killer cells) and another antigen of cancer cells at the same time thus allowing the cancer cells to be killed by the cytotoxic cells. However, when considering that the research results reveal that cancer cells themselves can be mutated to proliferate and penetrate even by intracellular ligands or various antigens of the same cancer cells other than the targeted antigen, it is expected that a multispecific antibody capable of recognizing another antigen of the cancer cells as well as an antigen of the killer cells will be also useful in treating cancers.
Accordingly, there is a need for the development of a multispecific antibody which is predicted to achieve effective cancer treatment by recognizing two or more kinds of antigens in cancer cells at the same time (e.g., a bispecific antibody).